The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

Twin blasts hit Army post in Damascus, 4 injured

Damascus, September 2
Two bombs exploded near the Syrian military's Joint Chiefs of Staff's offices in central Damascus on Sunday, lightly wounding four Army officers and causing damage to a building and cars, state television said.

The twin blasts in the posh Abu Rummaneh district of the Syrian capital were the latest in a wave of bombings to hit Damascus in the recent month as clashes between government troops and rebels reached the tightly controlled capital.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for Sunday's bombings, which Syrian government officials said appeared to target a building under construction near the offices of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. The building, which is officially known as the Guards Battalion and was empty at the time of the blast, serves as a base for army officers who guard the Joint Chiefs of Staff offices, which are located some 200 metres away.

Several past bombings have targeted the security establishment in Damascus, most notably a July 2012 blast that killed four senior security officials, including the defense minister and President Bashar Assad's brother-in-law.

The government officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because they are not authorised to brief the media, said the wounded on Sunday were Army officers and that they were hospitalised with unspecified "minor wounds" and later discharged.

Footage broadcast on Syrian state TV broadcast showed a damaged building with debris strewn across the street. The blasts punched a hole in one of the building's walls, and blew out the windshield and windows of an SUV parked nearby.

Sunday's twin bombing was the second in recent weeks to hit Abu Rummaneh. On August 15, 2012 a bomb attached to a fuel truck exploded outside the Dama Rose hotel where U.N. observers stayed before ending their mission to Syria. That blast, which hit a military compound parking lot, wounded three people.

Late Saturday, a car bomb near a Palestinian refugee camp in a suburb of Damascus killed at least 15 people, according to Syria's state news agency. SANA said Sunday the explosion in the suburb of al-Sbeineh also wounded several people and caused heavy damage to buildings in the area.

It blamed the blast on an "armed terrorist group," the term it uses to describe the rebel Free Syrian Army seeking to topple Mr. Assad, but did not provide further details. — AP

Blasphemy case: Pak imam held for ‘implicating’ Christian girl
Afzal Khan in Islamabad

Pakistani police officers escort blindfolded Muslim cleric Khalid Chishti to court in Islamabad on Sunday. — AP/PTI

In a new twist to the blasphemy case involving a minor Christian girl, an imam in the Pakistani capital was arrested and remanded to 14-day judicial custody on Sunday for allegedly planting pages of the Quran in her bag and using it to implicate her under the controversial law.

Khalid Chishti, the prayer leader of Jamia Aminia mosque in the low-income Mehria Jaffar neighbourhood of Islamabad, was arrested on Saturday night after a man testified that he had seen the cleric stuffing pages of the Quran in the bag of the Christian girl named Rimsha Masih.

The bag originally contained only some other papers and ashes. The witness, Hafiz Muhammad Zubair, recorded a statement against the cleric before a magistrate. The police subsequently arrested Chishti on the basis of this statement.

Chishti was produced before a judicial magistrate, who sent him to Adiala Jail in Rawalpindi for 14 days. Police officials said they expected Chishti to be charged under the controversial blasphemy law.

Earlier, Zubair told the media: "When the bag was brought to the mosque, there was nothing in it. When he (Chishti) was given the bag, he went into the mosque and pulled out two or three pages and added them to the bag.

"I told him what he was doing was wrong. He told me it is evidence against the Christians and a way to get them removed (from the area)," Zubair said.

The incident had occurred while Zubair and some other men were in 'aitekaf' (seclusion) in the mosque during the holy Islamic month of Ramzan.

Zubair said a neighbour of Rimsha named Malik Ammad, the complainant in the case, handed over the bag with the pages of the Quran to the police.

Chishti had acknowledged in a television interview last week that he had, during a recent sermon, called for the eviction of all Christians from the neighbourhood if they did not stop their prayer services because "Pakistan is an Islamic country given by Allah."

Rimsha was arrested on August 16 after an angry mob surrounded a police station and demanded that action be taken against her.

She is currently being held at the high-security Adiala Jail. Her judicial remand was extended by 14 days last week.

(With inputs from PTI)

Editor of Pak English daily beaten up for watching TV

Islamabad, September 2
An editor of one of Pakistan's leading English dailies was beaten up by four men outside his home in the port city of Karachi for watching TV and listening to music.

Though the incident occurred on August 27 and Zainul Abedin, op-ed editor of The News daily, reported the matter to police, no action has been taken by authorities so far, journalists in Karachi said.

The men who attacked the journalist are members of a proselytising group.

According to Abedin, four men kicked open the gate of his house in the in Gulshan-e-Iqbal area on August 27 and began to abuse him. When Abedin went to the gate to talk to the men, he was surrounded and grabbed.

One of the men objected to Abedin watching TV and listening to qawwalis. The men warned Abedin not to turn on his TV or listen to songs and qawwalis. — PTI

Stranded Indian students at LMU offered university places

London, September 2
Over 350 Indian students are among nearly 2,600 non-EU students being offered places at various universities after London Metropolitan University (LMU) was stripped of its licence to admit and teach international students last week.

A taskforce constituted to support current students at various stages of their courses is coordinating offers of places from universities in London and other places.

Some universities have offered to charge the same fees as the LMU even though their fees are higher than LMU’s. The LMU lost its licence last week after UK Border Agency ‘systemic and serious errors’ in the university’s recruitment of international students, including from India.

The action sparked concerns about the impact it would have on the UK’s standing in the international student recruitment market.

Indian students who had acquired student visas and were in the process of travelling to London to start their courses this month have been told to cancel their plans after the revocation.

The University of East London (UEL) has set up a hotline for LMU students, while others Middlesex University, University of Bedfordshire and De Montfort University have also expressed interest in accepting LMU students affected by the licence revocation.

The LMU has closed its offices in New Delhi and Chennai, while the university has informed some of the affected new students that they could have fees refunded.

Leicester-based Dominic Shellard, vice-chancellor of De Montfort University, said he was happy to see if London Met students could be accommodated at his institution.

Shellard told the media: “Our offer to help is not about financial gain. That is why a consortium approach through the taskforce is important. It would scotch the notion that some universities are trying to cream off students”.

Shellard said the swift reallocation of students would ultimately benefit universities by limiting negative publicity across the world: “I could see from the TV this has caused huge anxiety to bona-fide, legitimate students left totally bereft... I think the biggest challenge is how to limit the damage caused to the reputation of the sector overseas”.

Catherine Downes, director of corporate marketing at UEL, said: “We had over 100 calls from both international and home students... We have now set up a dedicated hotline with specialist advisers able to help students. We are quite convenient (for London Met students) in terms of our location and there is also a good match portfolio-wise”.

Amit Kapadia, the executive director of the campaign group HSMP Forum said: “Such measures (licence revocation) only show that the basic British values of fair play and justice are being threatened by mindless actions of the government and the sparkling reputation earned at the recent Olympics and on-going Paralympics is now being smeared by the unfair and the horrible injustice suffered by these students”.

The LMU is likely to legally challenge the decision to revoke its licence. — PTI

Isaac’s remnants bring rain to drought-hit US

Washigton, September 2
The remnants of Hurricane Isaac brought rain to drought-stricken parts of the lower US Midwest after the storm killed at least 30 persons on its trek across the Caribbean and Louisiana and Mississippi, authorities said.

Rainfall was expected through the lower Ohio River Valley after Isaac lost much of its punch while passing over Missouri. Top sustained winds had dropped to 32 kph and flash flood threats were diminishing, the National Weather Service said.

Flood warnings were still in effect for the Kansas City, Missouri, area as well as south-central Illinois, but Dan Petersen, a forecaster at the National Weather Services' Hydrometeorological Prediction Center in College Park, Maryland, said flooding was not expected to pose much of a problem.

"The rain is going to be occurring in areas that are parched and have greater capacity for accepting rainfall," Petersen said.

At least five deaths in Louisiana and two in neighboring Mississippi were blamed on Isaac and residents of the two states still suffered from power outages and widespread flooding on Saturday, authorities aid.

President Barack Obama, who declared a disaster in Mississippi and Louisiana on Wednesday, is scheduled to visit the region on Monday.

Isaac was the first hurricane to strike the United States this year and it hit New Orleans almost exactly seven years after Hurricane Katrina devastated the city, causing an estimated 1,800 deaths. — Reuters

Hindu-American Tulsi to address Democrats

Washington, September 2
Tulsi Gabbard, who appears all set to become the first Hindu-American to be elected to the US House of Representatives, has been invited to address the Democratic national convention in North Carolina next week.

Gabbard, who won the tough Democratic primary from Hawaii early this month figures among the list of women speakers led by the House Democratic Leader, Nancy Polosi, who will lead a presentation of the women of the House.

The list includes seven women lawmakers and two candidates for US House of Representatives - Joyce Beatty of Ohio and Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii.

California Attorney General Kamala D Harris is the only Indian American to figure in the list of speakers released so far by the organisers of the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte from September 4 to 6.

In the just concluded Republican national convention in Tampa, several Indian Americans had a chance to take the stage, including the South Carolina Governor, Nikki Haley, the party's Congressional candidate from California, Ricky Gill; and a Sikh priest from Central Florida, Ishwar Singh.

In a state where Republicans are rarely elected to Congress, victory of Tulsi Gabbard, raised with a Hindu mother and Catholic father, in the November 6 Congressional elections is considered certain thus making her the first Hindu ever elected to the US Congress.

Dalip Singh Saund, the first Indian-American elected to the House of Representatives in 1950s was a Sikh, while Bobby Jindal the second Indian-American to make it to the House of Representatives had converted to Christianity.

"I had the opportunity to study both Lord Krishna's Bhagavad Gita and also the New Testament. And like Mahatma Gandhi, who also studied both the Gita and the teachings of Jesus Christ, I saw that the central message of both is that we can only be truly happy if we are using our life in the loving service of God and humanity," Gabbard said in an interview. — PTI

US suspends training of Afghan recruits

Washington/Kabul, September 2
The US military has suspended training of some 1,000 Afghan police recruits while it double checks the background of the current police force following a spike in insider attacks on NATO troops, an official said today.

"Current partnered operations have and will continue, even as we temporarily suspend training of about 1,000 new Afghan Local Police recruits while re-vetting current members," said Col. Thomas Collins, a spokesman for the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force.

"While we have full trust and confidence in our Afghan partners, we believe this is a necessary step to validate our vetting process and ensure the quality indicative of Afghan Local Police," Collins was quoted as saying by CNN.

The move follows reports that 45 NATO troops were killed this year by either members of the Afghan security forces or by insurgents disguised as an Afghan policeman or soldier.

The most recent attack occurred on Wednesday when three Australian troops relaxing at their base in southern Uruzgan province were shot by a man wearing an Afghan army uniform in another "green-on-blue" attack. The term refers to a colour coding system used by the military, in which blue refers to the friendly force, in this case NATO; and green refers, in this case, to Afghan security forces. — PTI

Report: Iran plans major air defence exercise

Tehran, September 2
Iran plans to start a major military exercise later this month to test its air defence systems, a top Revolutionary Guards commander said in comments published today.

The exercise was announced by Brigadier-General Farzad Esmaili, who heads the elite force's air defence command, amid rising speculation that Israel is weighing the option of a pre-emptive military strike on Iran's nuclear facilities.

"All of the air defence systems of the Guards as well as those of the army will be used in the drill," which is planned to run from September 21 to October 21, Esmaili was quoted as telling the official IRNA news agency.

He told the Young Journalists Club that his unit's priority was protecting nuclear facilities. "The nuclear sites are our priority and most of the (air defence) systems, as well as covert defence units, have been set up around them," he said.

In addition to the air defence systems, fighter and bomber jets will be used in the exercise, which Esmaili said will simulate "unexpected scenarios" to test the forces' crisis management. — AFP

Lanka ready to welcome more Tamil refugees

Colombo, September 2
Sri Lanka will welcome more Tamil refugees who fled the country to India and want to return home after nearly three decades of war with the LTTE, a top minister has said.

"They have been returning from time to time, in small groups. My ministry along with the defence ministry would jointly welcome them if more want to return. They could be resettled in their places of origin," resettlement minister Gunaratne Weerakoon told PTI.

According to statistics more than 100,000 Sri Lankan refugees are in Tamil Nadu, out of which some 68,000 are housed in 112 government-run camps. More than 5,000 Lankans have returned to the island nation under a UNHCR-facilitated voluntary repatriation scheme.

They are the Tamils who fled fighting in the north and east during the separatist military campaign of LTTE.

Since the war ended in 2009, normalcy is returning gradually to the former conflict zones in Sri Lanka. A large number of the nation's Tamils fled overseas in the wake of the conflict between the government and LTTE in the mid-1980s. — PTI

Hantavirus outbreak
2 dead, 10,000 at risk in US national park

Los Angeles, September 2
Two persons have died and up to 10,000 visitors were at risk for contracting the deadly mouse-borne hantavirus after staying at the world-famous Yosemite National Park this summer, authorities said.

“The recent diagnosis of hantavirus pulmonary syndrome (HPS) in six park visitors, two of whom died, has prompted Yosemite National Park to scale up public health response and outreach,” park authorities said in a statement.

Up to 10,000 people who were guests in certain lodging cabins might have been exposed to the mouse-borne virus, Yosemite National Park officials said yesterday.

Four more cases of hantavirus have been reported among people who visited Yosemite National Park in California, bringing the total number of cases to six, the California Department of Public Health said. — PTI

Now, technology to cut solar energy cost by 75%

Washington, September 2
Scientists have developed a new technology which they claim could make production of solar energy cheaper by 75 per cent, and thus speed-up its market adoption.

The RTI International solar cells are developed from solutions of semiconductor particles, known as colloidal quantum dots, and have a power conversion efficiency that is competitive to traditional cells at a fraction of the cost.

Solar energy has the potential to be a renewable, carbon-neutral source of electricity but the high cost of photovoltaics, the devices that convert sunlight into electricity, has slowed widespread adoption of this resource.

Preliminary analysis of the material costs of the technology show that it can be produced for less than 20 dollars per square meter, 75 per cent less than traditional solar cells.

"Solar energy currently represents less than 1 per cent of the global energy supply, and substantial reductions in material and production costs of photovoltaics are necessary to increase the use of solar power," said Ethan Klem, research scientist at RTI and co-principal investigator of the project.

"This technology addresses each of the major cost drivers of photovoltaics and could go a long way in helping achieve that goal," Klem added. — PTI

‘Working from home increases productivity’

Washington, September 2
Those working from home are likely more productive workers, according to a study recently published by Stanford.

James Liang, one of the researchers, used to be the CEO of Ctrip and was still the chairman at the time of the study. Ctrip was concerned about the rising costs of office space, and a 50 percent annual attrition rate. The company found 255 employees who both wanted to work from home and met a few requirements to do so. The researchers then split those 255 volunteers into two groupst of five days a week, those with odd-numbered birthdays stayed in the office. Staff who worked from home had the same supervisors (all office-based) and worked the same shifts as their counterparts to ensure a direct comparison. During the 9-month study they found a 12 percent increase in productivity for the at-home workers. — ANI